Pulse responsive selector



Dec. 28, 1954 L. ROSEN 2,598,426

PuLsE RESPONSIVE SELECTOR Filed Deo. 4, 1944 -U50 AOjE/V INVENTOR ATTORN EY United States Patent PULSE RESPONSIVE SELECTOR Leo Rosen, United States Army, Arlington, Va.

Application December 4, 1944, Serial No. 566,629

4 Claims. (Cl. 340-164) (Granted .under Title 35, U. S. Code (1952), sec. 266) The invention .described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Goverment for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention is in communications systems, and particularly is a means for storing in proper order a plurality of signals, either to provide a simple time lag, or, more important, to permit the initiation of some desired action after the Storace of signals of a predetermined number and character.

While the invention will be described with reference to Teletype signals, the `usefulness of the system is not limited thereto, it being generally adaptable to any type of signaling which makes use of signals of current and no-current or marking and spacing impulses, or which uses signals of dilierent current or voltage levels.

One object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a novel means for storing temporarily communications signais-of the nature mentioned.

Another object is to provide a signal storage system includinga series of relays, each of which depends for action upon the action of a relay ahead of it in the series.

An additional obiect is the provision of van arrangement for initiating a desired action after a predetermined condition has been achieved in the signal storage means.

More specifically, it is au object of the invention to provide means for accumulating a succession of telegraph signals and initiating the action of a printer or indicator lamp only after a predetermined succession of telegraph signals have been stored.

Other objects will be apparent from a reading of the following specification and claims:

ln the drawings:

Figure 1 illustrates one of the circuits utilized in my invention.

Figure 2 illustrates a means for initiating a secondary action utilizing the circuits of Figure l.

Referring to Figure l, 1i) represents the movable contact member and 1i, the 'xed contact member of a -tape lcontrolled transmitter, such as is well known in the art Vof telegraph printing. A perforated tape steps between contacts and i1, or otherwise controls the opening and closing'of these contacts. inoperation, these'elements may be replaced by a relay or other switch operated through the agency of a .receiving distributor in accordance with the time intervals and their current and nocurrent impulses of standard telegraph code.

.Standard five-unit yi`eletype code involves, vfor each character transmitted, a signal comprising iive codeunits-current and no-current impulses-and a start and a stop impulse. in order to simplify this description, the start and stop impulses will be disregarded. For the five code elements to be considered, ve relay circuit similar to that shown in Figure l will be used. Each of the tive tapeasensing switches (five-unit Baudot code being assumed) is, in other Words, fed into a separate circuit. The circuit shown is representative. it includes actuating means, as solenoids A 16A, 20A 21A, A-26A, 3=A 31A, and 35A- 36A Winding 15A and core 16A have associated therewith xed contacts 16 and 16 and movable contacts 17 and 17". A battery 18, grounded at 19, feeds the winding. Similarly, elements 21 and 21", 22' and 22, 23 and 24 represent respectively, the tinted contacts, the movable contacts, battery, and ground associated with winding 29A and core 21A. The parts associated with solenoids 25A-26A,

30A 31A, and 35A-36A are numbered according to the system indicated.

A distributor 40, provided with a continuous contact ring 41, grounded at 42, contact segments 43, 44, 45, and 46, and brush member 47, cooperating with the batteries 18, 23, 28, 33, and 3S, supplies signals to the relays. The brush 47 is adapted to make one complete revolution each time the perforated tape moves .one step.

Assuming that an opening in the tape permits Contact member 10 to close upon Contact 11, and that brush 47 is rotating and is in approximately the position shown in Figure l, current will pass from ground 42 and ring 41, through brush member 47, line 50, contacts 11-10, winding 15A and battery i8, and thereby close movable contacts 17 and 17 upon fixed contacts 16' and 16, respectively. As brush 47 passes to segment 44, current ows over line 51, contact-s `17 16 and through the lower portion of winding 15A to battery 18, and locks the closed contacts. It will be apparent that had the condition of the perforated tape prevented .the closing of the contacts while brush 47 was sweeping contact segment 43, there would have been no circuit completed when the brush reached segment 44.

The next current pulse-that passing through contact segment 45 will, assuming contacts l6 17 to be closed, `energize relay Winding 29A and will close the contacts 21 22' and 21"-22. When brush 47 moves to contact 46, current will flow into the upper portion of winding 29A, and thus lock closed the contacts 21 22 and 21"-22.

It should be understood that the small gap shown between the segments 44 and 46 of the distributor will not produce a suiheient hiatus in time to open relay 20A-21A. ln relays .of the type here involved, the contacts will rarely open in less than ten milliseconds; the distributor arm will normally rotate in about i60 milliseconds; so the gap between segments 44 and 46 could be quite large; actually, it is small, and is exaggerated in the drawing for purposes of clarity.

This completes one rotation of the brush 47, and now the perforated tane will step.

.By way of illustrating further the .operation of the system, let us consider that the first three characters transmitted by a Teletype machine are to 'be lA C A. These may be represented in .this way:

.a plus indicating a marking impulse and a minus, a spacing impulse. The final condition of relays 15A 16A, 25A 26A, and

35A- 36A therefore, should be closed, open, closed, since only the first impulse of each letter group is to be considered.

lt should be remembered that the conditions of the various relays are constantly changing. A true picture of the signals received up to any given instant will :exist in relays 15A 16A, 25A-26A, and 35A-36A, just before brush 47 leaves contact segment 44. At this point on the first rotation, `as `already shown, relays 15A-16A, and 20A 21A will be energized.

Since the next signal will be a no-current impulse, contacts 10A-11A will be fopen, and relay 15A-16A will not be energized. Relay 20A-21A remains closed, however, and current flowing through segment 43 will thus be enabled to energize relay 25A-26A. Segment 44 will lock this latter relay, and 45 will -close Contact 31'-32' and 31 32 of relay 30A-31A. Relay 20A-21Awill open after brush 47 leaves contact segment 43. At the critical point in the second rotation, therefore, relays 25A 26A and 30A 31A will alone be energized.

On the third rotation, contacts 10A-11A will close, and current flowing through segment 43 energizes relay 15A-16A, and acting through contacts 31 32, closes contacts 35-37. Current from segment 44, flowing through line 52, locks both of these closed relays,

Y and, of course, does not affect relay 25A-26A. The

Adjacent the storage relays of Figure 1 may be seen additional contacts 63A, 64A, and 65A. These contacts do not enter into the transfer operations already described, but are operated by the adjacent relays, that is, theyopen and close as their respective relays are ener'- gized or not. These contacts form portions of a circuit shown in full in Figure 2, which circuit includes other contacts 63B to 63E, 64B to 64E, and 65B to 65E.

Each of the last mentioned contacts should be assumed to be operated by a storage relay ofthe nature shown in Figure 1, and `such relays should be assumed to be connected for operation as earlier described.

In such circumstances, received Teletype or similar signals will be transferred from relay to relay until three complete 5-impulse characters are stored therein, that` is, the conditions of the fifteen relays represent fteen successive mark-space intervals.

It should be understod that in the present description it is assumed that energized storage relays will cause the movable contact members of the contacts 63A-65E to close upon their upper fixed contacts, and that upon deenergization thereof, the movable contact members close against their associated lower fixed contacts.

A circuit isY prepared through the contacts 63A-63E, 64A-64E, and 65A-65E, in any desired manner, and a translating device 70 is provided in the circuit. Current is provided by battery 71, grounded at 72. It will be seen that this circuit will be closed whenever the first two relays of each row are closed, and the next three are open, that is, when three As have been received in succession; 1t will be obvious that, depending upon the understanding between sender and receiver, such a successionof letters may'mean that an error has occured, that a `portion of the message should be printed,` that a tape I should be perforated, or the like. Translating device 70,

rwhich may beiconsidered to be a switch, an electric typewriter, or a'reperforator, vwould then immediately be energized upon receipt of the prearrangedsignal, in this case three successive As. The actuation of the translating device can obviously be made to depend upon any other Y,predetermined'latter group.

The above descriptlon 1s in specific terms. 'Ille true scope of the invention Vwill appear from a reading of the locking circuitv each operative upon the closing of its re- .lay and independent of the opening thereof, a current supply, and current distributing means adapted to supplyy current first to the energizing circuit of a relay of the first series, secondly to the locking circuit of a relay .of Y

the first series, thirdly to the energizing circuit of a relay of the second series, and fourthly to the locking circuit of a relay of the second series,'a switch in the energizing circuit of a relay of the one series adapted to open and close in'accordance with the values of the signals to be stored, and contacts operated upon the energization of a, relay for closing a circuit tov another relay.

2. A circuit forV storing aplurality of two-level signals the circuit including an electrical supply,` distributing means and circuits, and ay plurality of switching devices each having an actuating circuit and a Vlocking circuit for locking the same when actuated, the distributing means being adapted when a marking signal is to be-stored to complete an actuating circuit through the first switching device, secondly to complete a locking circuit through said switching device and to open the actuating circuit, thirdly to complete an actuating circuit through another switching device' and-to break the locking circuit through the first switching device, and fourthly to complete a locking circuit through the second switching device and to break the actuating circuit through said second switching device, a normally open circuit substantially independent of said first-mentioned circuit including an additional electrical supply, a translating device operated by the closing of said circuit, and means for closing said normally open circuit upon the energization of certain predetermined switching devices only.

3. A circuit for storing a plurality of two-level signals, including two series of relays, each relay being provided with a normally open energizing circuit and a normally open locking circuit, a switch in the energizing circuit of the first reiay of the first series adapted to open and close in accordance with the values of the signals to be stored,

a source of energizing current, and a distributor comprising contact members connected to the source of current and a member adapted to Contact the contact members in turn and thus to supply current first to the energizing circuit of a relay of the first series, secondly to the locking circuit of said last mentioned relay, thirdly to the energizing circuit of av relay of the second series, and fourthly to the locking circuit of the last mentioned re lay of said second series, and normally open switches in the several circuits operative upon the energization of a relay for closing a Vcircuit of another relay.

4. In an apparatus of the nature described for storing a plurality `of two-level signals, .the combination of two series of relays keach relay being provided with an energizing Vcircuit and a locking circuit, a source of current, means forv closing the energizing circuit of one of the relays of one of said series, ifa signal of a predetermined type is to be stored, means effective, if said last mentionedV circuit is closed, for closing the locking circuit thereof and concurrently the energizing circuit of a relay of the other series, means including lsaicl source of current and depending upon a signal to be stored and partially upon an already energized relay forenergizing and locking successively the relays of the two series alternately.

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